The laugh will be all mine, as I'll inform you once again that I do not have one!

And even if I do buy one, and I'm 75 and in a wheelchair, what the hell else could you do with your day given your state that would be more fun??

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Realistically, I see pinball machines at home as what appears to be an extravagent entertainment item but if handled properly it can actually be cheap entertainment. For example, I buy a machine for $3500, over time I buy somee parts, maybe do some repairs. Overall my cost might be $4100, say, but I had many hours of entertainment and enjoyed
tinkering and learning. Now, years later for whatever reason I wish to sell the machine and wind up getting $3500 for it. What did it cost me? Maybe around $125/year. Multiply that by 10 games. So, I spent $1250/year for entertainment shared with others, and enjoyed something I am passionate about.

So, should I be pissed if I lose a few hundred on a machine sale?

My previous point exactly.  What does the average bill cost  for the boobtube?  I'll lose more paying for that crap than I ever will on a bad pinball transaction, and given the fun factor there, i'm actually talkng myself out of paying for it anymore, and turning our theater into another pin room...

seriously, this thread is classic, we can all use it to show our wives as another form of justification

It is indeed a very sophiticated entertainment.  The best, you don't lose any money.  The rare, you make few bucks out of it.  The impossible, you make enought money out of it for a living...  Let's be honnest here; take all the time, the efforts, the tools, the parts you need and tell me it is a good investment...  I just don't beleive in pinball as a valuable thing to put your money in.  The only reason for me to invest in a pin is passion.  What else?

I don't look at pins as investments, but I do look at them as something that I enjoy that will hold their value.

I always like knowing that if I ever REALLY needed to get my money out of them I could.

At about the same time I started heavily collecting I could have equally gone out and bought an Audi A8 but instead opted for my POS Mazda Protoge. The way I looked at it at the time was the car didn't mean all that much to me and didn't bring me anywhere near the enjoyment the hobby and ownership of a bunch of pinballs would so I said to myself all I need is a reliable set of wheels.

Depreciation on that A8 would make it nearly worthless nothing now, beaten since I needed to drive the hell out if everyday, and I would be out looking for a new car. My pinballs are still here and in better shape than I got them in. This unconventional thinking in the end makes me feel my games owe me nothing for the enjoyment I got from them over this entire period. In my unconventional way of thinking I got more out the hobby than I would have gotten from the car, and they're still here! I don't give two craps if the neighbours or my co-workers see me with an expensive car. I have a private parking spot and like to point out the fact I likely have have the crappiest car in the lot parked in it. I don't get paid a dime extra for showing up to work in a nice car. In fact I don't think having a nicer car than others psychologically has any positive affect on people. If anything driving a POS makes you more accepted and not trying to demonstrate somehow your an elitist, but I will leave that to Glenn to analyze. I work in an industry where respect does not come from the size of your paycheck.

Sure having the car and the pins would have been nice but I just didn't have the money for both. We make choices and I still feel putting money into the games was the better one regardless of how much they are worth now.

Every pin has a different price in the mind of everyone.  Is $6,900 too much for CV?  Yes, but I can say that because I already own one.  ;  I didn't pay close to that but I would have paid more than I did given the rarity of the game in Canada.  At the end of the day each person will determine the price they are willing to pay for a game.